Astoria–Ditmars Boulevard station

The Astoria–Ditmars Boulevard station (originally the Ditmars Avenue station; also Ditmars Boulevard station), is the northern terminal station on the BMT Astoria Line of the New York City Subway. Located above 31st Street between 23rd Avenue and Ditmars Boulevard in Astoria, Queens, it is served by the N train at all times and the W train on weekdays.

Astoria–Ditmars Blvd  ​
New York City Subway station (rapid transit)
Two trains at the station in October 2019
Station statistics
Address	23rd Avenue, Ditmars Boulevard and 31st Street Astoria, New York
Borough	Queens
Locale	Astoria
Coordinates	40.776089°N 73.910737°W / 40.776089; -73.910737
Division	B (BMT)[1]
Line	BMT Astoria Line
Services	N  (all times) ​   W  (weekdays)
Transit	MTA Bus: Q69, Q100 (at 20th Avenue)
Structure	Elevated
Platforms	1 island platform
Tracks	2
Other information
Opened	February 1, 1917; 107 years ago (1917-02-01)
Opposite- direction transfer	N/A
Former/other names	Ditmars Avenue
Traffic
2023	3,234,661[2]  7.8%
Rank	100 out of 423[2]
Services Preceding station New York City Subway Following station Astoria Boulevard N  ​W  via 34th Street–Herald Square Local Terminus
Location Show map of New York City Subway Show map of New York City Show map of New York
Track layout Legend to Astoria Boulevard
Street map
Station service legend Symbol Description Stops all times Stops weekdays during the day

The Astoria–Ditmars Boulevard station opened on February 1, 1917, as part of the initial segment of the IRT Astoria Line. In 2018 and 2019, this station was renovated along with six others on the Astoria Line.

This station has two tracks and an island platform. It is partially under the New York Connecting Railroad (NYCR) viaduct, which also carries the tracks of Amtrak's Northeast Corridor. Most of the platform is north of the viaduct.

History

Opening

Astoria–Ditmars Boulevard station seen from the New York Connecting Railroad viaduct

This station opened on February 1, 1917, along with the rest of the Astoria Line, which was originally part of the IRT, as a spur off the IRT Queensboro Line, now the IRT Flushing Line. Trains ran between Grand Central and Astoria.^[3][4] Dignitaries from the first ride included President of Alderman Frank Dowling, Public Service Commissioner Hodges, numerous other officials of the commission, President Shonts of the IRT, with a number of his assistants, and Queens Borough President Connolly. Members of the PSC pointed out the need to extend the line from the terminal to Ditmars Boulevard and Steinway Street.^[5] Regular passenger service started that afternoon.^[5] The station's name was originally Ditmars Avenue, which was the name of Ditmars Boulevard at the station's opening.^[5][6]

On July 23, 1917, the Queensboro Bridge spur of the elevated IRT Second Avenue Line opened. At that time, all elevated trains to Queensboro Plaza used the Astoria Line while all subway trains used the Corona Line, though this was later changed with trains alternating between branches.^[4][7] This station started to be served by BMT shuttles using elevated cars on April 8, 1923.^[8]

The city government took over the BMT's operations on June 1, 1940,^[9][10] and the IRT's operations on June 12, 1940.^[11][12] On October 17, 1949, the Astoria Line became BMT-only as the tracks at Queensboro Plaza were consolidated and the platforms on the Astoria Line were shaved back to allow through BMT trains to operate on it. Service was initially provided by the Brighton Local (BMT 1) weekdays & Broadway - Fourth Avenue Local (BMT 2) at all times.^[13]

Renovations

In 1981, the MTA listed the station among the 69 most deteriorated stations in the subway system.^[14] The MTA received a $106 million grant from the Urban Mass Transit Administration in October 1983; most of the grant would fund the renovation of eleven stations,^[15][16] including Ditmars Boulevard.^[15]

In February 2018, the MTA announced that the station would be renovated for 14 months beginning in April of that year, as part of a $22 million project. The station house, mezzanine, and stairs would be repaired. Some residents protested, arguing that the renovated station would lack elevators, and that then-ongoing full closures of the 30th Avenue and 36th Avenue stations in Astoria had negatively impacted the community. The station remained open during renovation.^[17]

Station layout

Platform level	Southbound	← toward Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue (Astoria Boulevard) ← toward Whitehall Street–South Ferry weekdays (Astoria Boulevard)
	Island platform
	Southbound	← toward Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue (Astoria Boulevard) ← toward Whitehall Street–South Ferry weekdays (Astoria Boulevard)
Mezzanine		Fare control, station agent, MetroCard and OMNY machines
Ground	Street level	Exit/entrance

Staircase entrances on 31st Street. The Q train served this station from 2010 to 2016.

The Astoria–Ditmars Boulevard station has two tracks and an island platform. The N stops here at all times and the W stops only on weekdays during the day; the station is the northern terminus for both trains. The next stop to the south is Astoria Boulevard. It is partially located under the New York Connecting Railroad (NYCR) viaduct. Most of the platform is north of the viaduct. The platform canopy extends to the portion of the platform under the NYCR.^[18] The tracks end at bumper blocks at the north end of the platform.

As part of the MTA Arts & Design program, Elisabeth Condon created an artwork for the station, titled Urban Idyll, which was installed in 2018. It consists of laminated glass windows with a Tree of Life theme.^[19]

Exits

The station's only mezzanine is a station house beneath the tracks and platforms. Two double-wide staircases from the platform go down to their own bank of turnstiles with a token booth in the middle. Outside fare control, there are four staircases, two going down to the west side of 31st Street between Ditmars Boulevard and 23rd Avenue and two going down to the east side. The east side of the station house has a short, enclosed pedestrian bridge that leads to the Ditmars Plaza Mini Mall, located on the second floor of the adjacent Garry Building. This mall has a staircase to the street, providing another entrance to the station.^[20]

Provisions for proposed extensions

End of the station.

There was a proposed, but never-built, extension of the line toward Bayside and possibly LaGuardia Airport.^[21] In 1998, an extension of the BMT Astoria Line to LaGuardia Airport was planned as part of a $1.2 billion package to provide access to the New York City airports with funding from the MTA, the Port Authority and the city. The preferred route would have extended the Astoria Line along 31st Street north onto Con Edison’s property at the edge of Astoria and then east along 19th Avenue to the Marine Air Terminal. The MTA also considered an eastward extension along Ditmars Boulevard, and a plan to reroute LaGuardia-bound trains from Queensboro Plaza through the Sunnyside rail yard and along the eastern edge of St. Michael’s Cemetery to elevated tracks parallel to the Grand Central Parkway. A fourth route was to have trains turn east via Astoria Boulevard.^[22] All of the options would have new elevated sections built. $645 million for the LaGuardia extension was included in the MTA’s 2000-2004 Five-Year Capital Plan, and in late 2002, Mayor Bloomberg supported the extension. These options were studied in the LaGuardia Airport Subway Access Study.^[23] Community opposition was strong and therefore the plan was canceled in July 2003.^[24][25] After the AirTrain LaGuardia people mover, which would have run to Mets–Willets Point, was canceled in 2023, a panel of three transportation experts recommended that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey operate a shuttle bus route from the airport to the Astoria–Ditmars Boulevard station.^[26][27]

The Regional Plan Association, in its Fourth Plan in 2017, anticipated that the population of Astoria would quickly grow over the next three decades, and so called for the Astoria Line to be extended to a new storage yard at Ditmars Boulevard and 20th Street, which would provide added capacity. In addition, a new station at 21st Avenue and 20th Street would improve access for the currently underserved but dense northwest parts of Astoria.^[28]

Ridership

In 2019, the station had 5,277,341 boardings, making it the 120th most used station in the 423-station system. This amounted to an average of 17,912 passengers per weekday.^[29]

Image gallery

• 
  Platform before 2019 renovation
• 
  Elisabeth Condon's Urban Idyll piece in the station's mezzanine.
• 
  Station seen in 1970s
• 
  Gerry Building Entrance

References

1. "Glossary". Second Avenue Subway Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement (SDEIS) (PDF). Vol. 1. Metropolitan Transportation Authority. March 4, 2003. pp. 1–2. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 26, 2021. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
2. "Annual Subway Ridership (2018–2023)". Metropolitan Transportation Authority. 2023. Retrieved April 20, 2024.
3. "First Train Runs On Elevated Line to Astoria Section". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. February 1, 1917. Archived from the original on September 5, 2019. Retrieved June 29, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
4. Annual report. 1916-1917. New York: Interborough Rapid Transit Company. 1917. Archived from the original on September 29, 2018. Retrieved August 7, 2018.
5. "First Train Runs On Elevated Line to Astoria Section". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. February 1, 1917. Archived from the original on April 7, 2018. Retrieved June 29, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
6. "Street Name Changes in Queens, New York". One-Step Webpages by Stephen P. Morse. Archived from the original on August 29, 2015. Retrieved June 29, 2015.
7. "Subway Link Over Queensboro Bridge". The New York Times. July 22, 1917. p. 31. Archived from the original on August 21, 2019. Retrieved December 18, 2011.
8. "Additional Subway Service to Borough of Queens". The New York Times. April 8, 1923. p. RE1. Archived from the original on August 21, 2019. Retrieved December 18, 2011.
9. "B.M.T. Lines Pass to City Ownership; $175,000,000 Deal Completed at City Hall Ceremony-- Mayor 'Motorman No. 1'". The New York Times. June 2, 1940. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on July 19, 2021. Retrieved May 14, 2022.
10. "City Takes Over B. M. T. System; Mayor Skippers Midnight Train". New York Herald Tribune. June 2, 1940. p. 1. ProQuest 1243059209.
11. "City Transit Unity Is Now a Reality; Title to I.R.T. Lines Passes to Municipality, Ending 19-Year Campaign". The New York Times. June 13, 1940. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on January 7, 2022. Retrieved May 14, 2022.
12. "Transit Unification Completed As City Takes Over I. R. T. Lines: Systems Come Under Single Control After Efforts Begun in 1921; Mayor Is Jubilant at City Hall Ceremony Recalling 1904 Celebration". New York Herald Tribune. June 13, 1940. p. 25. ProQuest 1248134780.
13. "Direct Subway Runs to Flushing, Astoria". The New York Times. October 15, 1949. p. 17. Archived from the original on August 21, 2019. Retrieved December 18, 2011.
14. Gargan, Edward A. (June 11, 1981). "Agency Lists its 69 Most Deteriorated Subway Stations". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 31, 2019. Retrieved August 13, 2016.
15. Moses, Charles T. (October 3, 1983). "TA Gets Funds to Fix Subways". Newsday. p. 3. ISSN 2574-5298. Archived from the original on September 7, 2023. Retrieved May 5, 2023.
16. Gargan, Edward A. (October 3, 1983). "City Speeding Its Subway Repairs". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on April 28, 2022. Retrieved May 5, 2023.
17. Barone, Vincent (February 8, 2018). "Queens residents, politicians are fed up with MTA construction". am New York. Archived from the original on February 11, 2018. Retrieved February 10, 2018.
18. Dougherty, Peter (2006) [2002]. Tracks of the New York City Subway 2006 (3rd ed.). Dougherty. OCLC 49777633 – via Google Books.
19. "Astoria Ditmars Blvd". MTA Arts & Design. MTA. 2018. Archived from the original on August 30, 2019. Retrieved November 15, 2019.
20. "MTA Neighborhood Maps: Astoria" (PDF). Metropolitan Transportation Authority. 2015. Archived (PDF) from the original on November 23, 2018. Retrieved September 27, 2015.
21. Martin, Douglas (November 17, 1996). "Subway Planners' Lofty Ambitions Are Buried as Dead-End Curiosities". The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 7, 2017. Retrieved June 27, 2015.
22. Kabak, Benjamin (January 19, 2010). "Dreams of taking the N to LaGuardia". Second Ave. Sagas. Archived from the original on April 29, 2016. Retrieved May 1, 2016.
23. "Second Avenue Subway Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement (SDEIS), April 2003 Appendix A Planning Context" (PDF). mta.info. Metropolitan Transportation Authority. April 2003. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 18, 2016. Retrieved August 9, 2016.
24. Toscano, John (July 16, 2003). "N Train Extension To LaG Scrapped". Queens Gazette. Archived from the original on May 25, 2009. Retrieved July 26, 2009.
25. "Flashback To 1999". www.qgazette.com. June 27, 2007. Archived from the original on March 22, 2016. Retrieved March 25, 2014.
26. McGeehan, Patrick (March 13, 2023). "Plans to Build AirTrain to La Guardia Are Officially Scrapped". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on March 14, 2023. Retrieved March 13, 2023.
27. "LaGuardia AirTrain NYC: Hochul scraps plan and MTA, Port Authority improve bus service". ABC7 New York. March 13, 2023. Archived from the original on March 13, 2023. Retrieved March 14, 2023.
28. "Fourth Regional Plan - Regional Plan Association". Regional Plan Association. November 2017. Archived from the original on February 13, 2023. Retrieved January 22, 2022.
29. "Annual Subway Ridership (2018–2023)". Metropolitan Transportation Authority. 2023. Retrieved April 20, 2024.

External links

• nycsubway.org – BMT Astoria Line: Ditmars Boulevard
• Station Reporter — N Train
• TheSubwayNut - Astoria-Ditmars Boulevard
• Ditmars Boulevard entrance from Google Maps Street View
• Platform from Google Maps Street View